Just a Story
by fmapreshwab
Summary: Rodney and Ronon have something to tell John, but he doesn't want to hear it. Tie in with 'Common Ground'. McDex.


"No." John Sheppard sat on his bed, two of his best friends standing in front of him (holding hands no less), and slowly replayed the last few minutes in his mind to ensure he hadn't missed something, or just gone completely insane. He had come off shift and was just about to turn in for the night after an exhausting day of…well, he hadn't really done anything today but walk around the corridors and yell at marines, but he was tired and ready to sleep. He'd peeled off the BDUs, taken a hot shower, then found some pajamas and settled down on the bed. The door signal had gone off and he had considered ignoring it, but it had to be important for whoever it was to come to his quarters when he was off duty. "Yeah, come in." Rodney McKay and Ronon Dex had slowly shuffled in, intently watching their respective pairs of feet, odd behavior for both of them. He now regretted not sending them out then and there. "What can I do for you, boys?" he asked, standing.

"Uh…Colonel, we were wondering if we could talk with you." Rodney had seemed hesitant, and he had used John's rank, neither particularly encouraging signs.

"Sure, yeah, would you guys wanna sit down or…" he trailed off lamely, not really knowing what to say just yet.

"Um, no, but you might want to." Neither of them would meet his eyes, and Ronon hadn't said a word since coming in.

John had obligingly sat at the end of his bed, waited a few moments for one of them to talk. When neither took the initiative, he's asked simply, "What's this all about, guys?"

"Well, you see, we wanted to tell you something. I— We— It's like this—"

"Rodney," he interrupted sharply. "Spit it out."

"We, Ronon and I," he had gestured between, "Are uh…" He had trailed off and his hand slowly reached out toward his powerful teammate and, after a deep breath, he'd gripped his hand decisively.

Which had lead to this moment. "No."

"What we're saying—wait, what do you mean 'no'?" Rodney asked incredulously.

John looked up at him. "No. Just no." Rodney began twitching just slightly around his left eye, his jaw hanging open, and Ronon menacingly loomed over them both. It occurred to John that Ronon had done a lot of menacing looming lately, especially around Rodney, but he dismissed the thought, turning to more important matters. "I can't know this right now!" he shouted, throwing his hands in the air.

"Oh? And why is that?"

He could feel his throat constricting. "I— You— He— Can't—"

"Can't?!" Rodney was positively incensed.

John started rasping, and the world turned a dangerous shade of purple. "Sheppard?" a voice, Ronon's voice, asked tentatively, quietly. He felt the bed racing up to meet him, and his head hit what may have been the floor. "John?!"

After a short time in the black of unconsciousness, the world resolved itself into the familiar ceiling of his room and a man standing over him. "Rodnon?" The man resolved his shape into his two friends hovering over him.

"Hit your head did you?" Rodney asked. "Two very separate names, there."

After they helped him up and back onto the bed, he remembered why he had fallen in the first place. "Wait, wait, wait," he said, just a bit too loud, shrugging their hands off his shoulders. "Did somebody say you guys are together?"

"Uh, yeah, that was me," Rodney trailed off.

"How? When? What the hell, guys?"

"Do you really want to hear the story?" Rodney asked skeptically. When John nodded, if somewhat reluctantly, he sighed. He and Ronon pulled up chairs next to John's bed. "Well, see it all got started about a month ago when you got yourself captured by the Genii, and Kolya broadcast that whole feeding frenzy—"

cue wavy flashback lines

Rodney burst from the control room, unable to contain himself any longer. Tears of frustration and rage blurred the corridors and the blood pounded in his ears.

"_Aw, Rodney, I didn't know you cared."_

"_Do you want to hear the story or not?"_

"_No, no, go ahead."_

He ran for a long time, longer than he knew he was capable of, until he collapsed in a dark, empty corridor, racked with sobs that shook him to his very core. It registered in some small part of his mind that he was in an unexplored part of the city, and he could stay here as long as it took for things to be okay again, for him to wake up and have John making fun of him and being an idiot, being normal.

"_Hey!"_

A hand latched on to his shoulder, dashing any hopes he had of waking up. In the darkness, he neither saw nor cared who it was. He wrapped himself around the arm, the only sounds his own quiet sobs and intermittent cries of 'Damn him. Damn him straight to hell!' The second of the pair of arms wrapped around his knees, and he felt himself being lifted by strong arms. He was rocked gently, to accompanying murmurings, deep and soothing.

He took a shuddering breath, steeling himself for the scream he felt forming deep in his gut. He shouted and he yelled into the warm stomach of his rescuer until all the air was gone from him, and he didn't stop. He faded from the fuzzy darkness of the unlit corridor to the absolute black of unconsciousness, then a dim light filled his mind. It was the light of the prison.

He saw Sheppard strapped to the chair, that bastard Kolya standing over him. Then the unshackled Wraith approached, hunger gleaming in his large, round eyes. His hand hovered for just an instant over Sheppard's chest, before falling the remaining inch. John screamed and the Wraith's eyes rolled into the back of his head. The pale monster lingered a moment too long and had to be tazed, but John's blood curdling scream and the look on Kolya's face remained to be played over and again in Rodney's feverish nightmare.

"_Jesus, Rodney, even I didn't get this upset about it."_

"_Shut up or I'll sic the big guy on you."_

"_Oh, come on, Ronon's my buddy, he wouldn't hurt me. Right, Ronon, pal, buddy, chum, dude?"_

"_Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…"_

"_Right, and the rest of the story goes how?"_

Rodney woke with a start to one of the generic, too-well-lit corridors of the interior of the city. There was a low hum at the edge of his hearing, and he realized he was being sung to. Not only that, but he was being held, cradled even.

"_Ronon?"_

"_Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…"_

"_Ronon, shhhhh. Sheppard, may I remind you it might be a bad idea to anger the man with the guns and various pointy metal bits?"_

He shifted into the warm grasp and enjoyed the sound a moment longer, until it abruptly stopped. "You're awake," a rough voice said from behind him.

He took a deep breath of the cool air, felt it scratch along his raw throat. "Yes, but don't let that stop you." He stayed in the comforting grip a minute longer, before turning and opening his eyes to the concerned, worn face of Ronon. The larger man stared down at him for a while, then stood, helping Rodney up after rising. "Ronon—" he started, but Ronon cut him off by gathering him up in a familiar hold. It took Rodney a moment to realize he was being hugged by the imposing man. He went limp, melting into the Satedan's embrace.

After perhaps a moment too long, he patted Ronon on the back and straightened. He opened and closed his mouth once or twice, at a loss for an explanation. "I'm worried, too," Ronon said, interpreting his hesitation to concern for their friend.

Rodney grinned briefly as Ronon put a large hand over his shoulder, completely encompassing it. "Let's fix this," Rodney barely managed. Ronon helped him back to the control room, where he was immediately the annoyed, abrasive scientist everyone was expecting.

more wavy lines

"Wow, Rodney, that's a nice story. Any of it true?" Sheppard asked nonchalantly, leaning back against the wall behind his bead.

"Every word," Ronon told him sincerely.

"So…wow, a month?"

"As of tomorrow. We're going to tell everyone during the lunch briefing, but we thought you might want to know first." Rodney sent him a shy glance from under his brow, making John just a little suspicious.

"Because I'm you friend, or because you didn't want me to cause a scene?" John was a little concerned what the answer might be.

"Little of both, plus, you know, in a big way, you're the reason we're together." Rodney grinned up at him as he wrapped his arm around Ronon's waist.

John wasn't sure if he should be flattered or upset, and decided to go ahead and feel good about himself. After all, it wasn't everyday he got to play intergalactic matchmaker, and he was glad something good had come from his abduction.


End file.
